Clean Slate 3: Sunrise
by giovanbronckhorst
Summary: Sequel to Fighting For Nothing and Her Diamonds. Juliet and Sawyer made it off the island in 1977 and reached the wedding milestone in 1980. Now, in 1981 another is fast approaching…


Disclaimer: I asked. They said no.

Character(s): Juliet Burke, James Ford.

Pairing(s): Suliet.

Summary: Sequel to Fighting For Nothing and Her Diamonds. Juliet and Sawyer made it off the island in 1977 and reached the wedding milestone in 1980. Now, in 1981 another is fast approaching…

A/N:  This is the third part of my Suliet "Clean Slate" series and I hope you enjoy. It's probably best if you read Fighting For Nothing and Her Diamonds first, or you'll probably be extremely confused. After this one, I have an idea to continue it although it may be a multi-chapter fic, depending on how it comes out… that's if it comes out at all. Anyway, happy reading!

*****

With a gentle snuggle, Juliet LaFleur attempted to alleviate the pain in the small of her back.

"Jules?" James mumbled as she pressed back against him. "What's up?"

Juliet turned to face her husband and gently smiled. "I can't sleep," she complained. "Your child is making me extremely uncomfortable."

"Oh, _my_ child, huh?" James said teasingly. "She's _my_ child, is she? I think we were both involved in this, my dear wife."

Juliet giggled softly. "Yes, _he _is your child. And I don't care if we were both involved. You shouldn't argue with a pregnant woman," she reminded.

James laughed lightly and wrapped his arms around his very heavily pregnant wife. Her protruding 8-month stomach made it extremely difficult for the daddy-to-be to fit his arms all the way around her but he did as much as he could.

"I'm so tired. All this thing does is take it out of me," Juliet complained, rubbing a hand over her bump.

Juliet wasn't sure if it was because of her comment, or if he'd received a hit to the head, but James started laughing, almost maniacally.

"What?" his wife quizzed. "What's so funny?"

"Has it dawned on you yet, that our child is going to be born when we're actually only about 11?"

Juliet took a moment to realise what he meant before she realised. In a way, that was kind of funny. Before she knew it, she was laughing heavily along with James.

When the laughter between the two died down, they laid comfortably together, until James glanced over at the clock. "It's 3:30, Jules. Don't you think you should get some sleep?"

"Trust me, if it was up to me, I'd have been asleep four hours ago," Juliet continued to grumble.

"Do you mind if I sleep?" James asked.

Juliet gasped and smacked him on the arm. "Of course I mind! If I'm awake, then you're going to be awake too!"

James was slightly surprised at her outburst, but laid it down to the hormones. "Now go get me some nuts."

"What?"

"I want peanuts!" Juliet demanded. James chuckled lightly before swinging his legs out of bed.

"And just where am I meant to get peanuts, Barbie?"

"I dunno. You'll find some somewhere," she insisted.

"You know you're getting peanuts from a bar that dirty hands have touched," he threatened playfully.

Juliet glared him out of the room.

*****

James slid himself comfortably into the driver's side of his '69 Mustang (his dream car for as long as he could remember) and turned the key in the ignition. As he settled into a comfortable drive, he chuckled as he looked over to the passenger seat. Littering the foot well was the remnants of all the time he and Juliet had been driving and she'd suddenly demanded some kind of food.

The cruise along the streets was easy as it was very quiet, with most people home asleep.

"I should be home asleep," he muttered to himself as he continued driving. The first open store he came across was a gas station, so he stopped and hoped they'd have some peanuts for his very grouchy wife.

As he pulled over, a sight caught his eye from the foot well. Pushing his hand through the rubbish of numerous take-out joints and candy wrappers, his fingers wrapped around a small object. Pulling it out, he saw that it was a picture of the wedding day.

James smiled and remembered the day the picture had undoubtedly been dropped in the well. Juliet had devoured a cheeseburger faster than James cared to think about, while trying to keep the picture in her hand to deliver to Harry and Mary. But, as she had dropped the litter into the car, the picture had gone as well. Of course, Harry and Mary had never mentioned not receiving a picture to ensure that they didn't appear rude, but James was now sure that they were probably wondering where it went.

The picture showed James in his tux and Juliet in her beautiful white dress arm in arm as they smiled for the photographer.

Dropping the picture onto the opposite seat, James climbed out of the car to enter the store. Browsing the shelves for a moment, he came across a packet of peanuts large enough to tide Juliet over for now.

He paid the price and went back to the car to go home. Following the same route back, James arrived home within fifteen minutes and climbed out of the car. Entering the house, he was surprised at how quiet it was. Maybe Juliet had finally managed to get to sleep?

Walking up to the bedroom, James looked in to see the bed was empty. He narrowed his eyes and made his way to the bathroom. "Jules?" he called through the door. When there was no reply, he pushed open the door to find it empty, also.

Becoming slightly more worried; James went back downstairs and looked through all the rooms there. "Juliet?!" he called out, almost becoming hysterical.

Opening the front door once more, he stepped just over the threshold and was about to yell again when he saw Harry running quickly over to him.

"James, man, you've gotta go quick."

"What, Harry? What's going on?"

"Juliet! She's gone to the hospital with Mary. She started getting pains and she thinks she's in labour! She told me to wait here to tell you to get to the hospital as soon as you can!"

James didn't wait for Harry to finish speaking. He immediately dived back into the car and turned the ignition on.

*****

As soon as James had left the bed, Juliet tucked her legs up as far as she could in an attempt to comfort her aching body.

She attempted to fall asleep before James returned from the peanut hunt, knowing that would irk him. She smiled to herself at that thought. Just as the pain alleviated at the base of her spine, Juliet smiled and snuggled down, preparing for her long awaited sleep. When she did that, she felt a sharp pain cross her stomach.

Looking down, she watched the large bump, almost waiting for it to move. When nothing happened, she relaxed back down. Within three seconds of that, another sharp pain shot across her, strong enough to make Juliet grip her stomach.

Fear washed over her. "No, I've got another month. No," she whispered as she clambered out of the bed and reached for her overnight bag that had been packed for three months. As she clambered carefully down the stairs, Juliet continued to panic.

Her baby was going to be a month earlier. What if something went wrong? If this was 2007 that was one thing but Juliet wasn't sure how much she trusted the natal and newborn care of 1981.

As she made it to the bottom of the stairs and towards the living room another pain crippled her. She had to stop for a moment, and then continued on. She made it to the telephone on the table, but slammed it down in anger when she realised that James was in the car, without any means of contact.

When they had first settled in San Diego, James had suggested perhaps buying cell phones that had been invented just 6 years before. But after experiencing what they would be in the 2000s, the couple were sure they couldn't deal with the bricks on 1977.

Now she wished that perhaps they had bought those. Any cell phone was better than no cell phone.

She managed to hobble to the door and make it next door to Harry and Mary Wilkins. Banging on the door, growing more desperate by the second, Juliet paid no attention to the fact that it was nearly 4am.

An extremely groggy Mary Wilkins made it to the door in her night shirt and dressing gown.

"Juliet, sweetheart, what's going on? Where's James?"

"Mary. I need your help. I think I'm having my baby."

It was times like these that Juliet was so thankful to have neighbours and best friends like Harry and Mary. The couple were both in their 40s and Harry worked at labouring; working with James. They'd met as soon as James and Juliet had moved in, with Harry and Mary being more than friendly and helping James and Juliet out as much as they possibly could. When James started working with Harry, the couples became best friends as well as neighbours. After all their time on the island and they're leave from it, they needed all the good friends they could get.

Mary seemed to go into super-friend mode as soon as she heard what Juliet had to say. She gripped hold of Juliet's hand and led her towards Harry's car. "Right, we're going to get you to the hospital. Where's James, honey?"

"He's- uh- he's gone to get- uh- me some peanuts," Juliet managed to get out through the pain.

"Alright. Harry'll stay here and tell James where we've gone as soon as he gets back. Right, let's get you in the car."

*****

One James had started up his car, he sped off down the freeway making it to the hospital in record time. As he gripped his steering wheel, James could feel the sweat dripping from his face as he began to panic.

He had absolutely no idea what to do. He wasn't there when Clementine was born- heck, he'd never even seen the kid! But this child was on its way right now and he didn't have time to read up on all the daddy chapters of the baby books that he'd 'misplaced'.

Pulling into the hospital car park, James was relieved to see Harry's car not too far away. He threw himself out and towards the entrance to main reception. Despite the small queue there, James dived to the front, ignoring the noise of complaints from behind him.

"Juliet LaFleur, where is she?" he demanded.

"Sir, if you'd like to take a place at the back of the queue, I'll get to you as soon as possible."

James slammed his fist down on the table and leaned, almost menacingly, over the table. "Listen to me, my wife is about to have my child and I need to be there with her! So just tell me what goddamn room she's in!"

The receptionist opened her mouth again, probably about to attempt to calm him. Out of the corner of his eye, James saw a door open, leading down a corridor. Mary stood at it, beckoning to him.

"LaFleur, get over here right now!" she ordered.

James disregarded the receptionist and started running to catch up with Mary. "You know, I could hear you from Julie's room?" she laughed.

In another situation, James probably would have laughed as well, but right now all he could think about was the birth of his child. He followed along behind Mary and they soon came to the maternity ward. Rushing through, Mary showed him to Juliet's room. She stopped at the door and smiled warmly at him.

"Go on then."

"You're not coming in?" James asked.

"No. This is something between you and Juliet."

"But… what if I don't know what to do when the baby gets here? What if I hurt it? What if I drop it?" James panicked.

Mary smiled again. "You'll be fine. Now get in there to your wife. She needs you."

James needed no more prompting as he took a deep breath and made his way into the room.

*****

A little over an hour later, James' hand felt ready to crumble and Juliet was covered in sweat.

"Right, push, Juliet," the doctor instructed.

Juliet took in a large gasp of air and pushed with as much might as she could manage. With a huge scream, the baby began to crown.

"I can see the head, Juliet. One more push to clear the shoulders."

Juliet did as she was told and managed to get the baby's shoulders out. The hardest part was over. "One last push, sweetie. You're doing so well," James said gently as Juliet squeezed his hand again.

Juliet complied and with her last burst of energy, managed to push the first LaFleur child into the world.

Everyone except Juliet burst into ear splitting smiles as the baby let out a hearty cry. Juliet herself was nearly too exhausted to breath, let alone smile.

"Mr. and Mrs. LaFleur, I've very happy to tell you that you have a healthy baby girl."

James' smile grew by at least three inches as the nurse offered to let him cut the umbilical cord. Once it was done and the baby was wrapped warmly, she was placed on Juliet's chest.

Juliet looked down at her tiny, 3lb 7oz daughter and cried. "She's so beautiful," she whispered, rubbing her thumb gently over the girl's cheek.

"That she is," James agreed, never having felt so much love and pride in his life. The feeling was overwhelming, almost like his chest was about to explode with the way he felt.

"You were right," Juliet smiled up at her husband.

"About what?"

"It's a girl."

James smirked widely. "Well I'm always right."

"Well, are we agreed on the name, Mr. Right?" Juliet asked.

"I think we are. Lola-Rose Rachel LaFleur," he smiled, the feeling of pride welling up in his chest again.

Juliet smiled also, feeling the love for her husband and daughter grow larger. "I thought we were just agreed on Lola-Rose for a girl. But Rachel after my sister?"

"That's right," James replied.

Juliet felt more tears spill down her cheeks. "Would you like to hold your daughter, James?"

James was about to turn down the offer, for the fear of injuring his tiny, fragile daughter. But, before he could open his mouth, a switch flipped in his head and he entered daddy mode. The mode that meant he would protect this little girl against the world. Nothing would ever hurt his Lola.

James held out his arms, waiting patiently as Juliet placed her in them. He moved backwards from the bed, and stared gently out of the window as his daughter hiccupped. As his eyes looked over the horizon, he saw the sun rising.

"Beautiful. Just like you," he whispered down to Lola-Rose who had snuggled away to sleep in his arms. Turning around to show his wife, he noted that Juliet herself was beginning to drift off.

"Juliet?" he called out gently.

"Mm?"

"I take it you don't want those peanuts now?"

*****

A/N: As per usual, it would be great to get some reviews for this. Reviews are my life and it'd be awesome to know what you think. Concrit is also awesome as I love knowing how I can improve.


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